AFAM Presents Global Garveyism Symposium

April 20, 2016

The Department of African American Studies is proud to invite the VCU community to attend the Global Garveyism Symposium, which takes place April 21-23.

The Global Garveyism Symposium is sponsored by the Department of African American Studies, the College of Humanities and Sciences, the Global Education Office, the Office of Multicultural and Student Affairs, the Humanities Research Center, and the Office of the President.

The symposium will feature a series of lectures, panels, and roundtable discussions featuring more than twenty Garveyism scholars. All events are free and open to the public.

Garveyism is a movement that originated with Jamaican activist and political figure Marcus Garvey (1887-1940). Garvey was a notable proponent of Pan-Africanism, and worked to bring an end to colonial rule in Africa. In 1914, he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), an organization that is active to this day. Speakers will discuss Garvey’s significance and legacy. The event will mark the largest gathering of Garveyism scholars in thirty years. Current members of the UNIA will also be in attendance. One of the goals of the symposium is to shed light on both the historically-marginalized study of Garveyism in academia and its current cultural relevance.

On Thursday, Dr. Robert A. Hill will give a talk at 7:00 PM in MCALC 1102 titled “On the Genealogy of ‘Africa for the Africans,’ 1858-1958.” Dr. Hill is a Research Professor of History at UCLA and a noted Garveyism scholar.

On Friday evening, there will be a community forum at 7:30 PM in the Depot that will include several community organizers and activists.

The symposium is being organized by Dr. Adam Ewing of the Department of African American Studies. In 2014, Dr. Ewing’s book The Age of Garvey: How a Jamaican Activist Created a Mass Movement and Changed Global Black Politics was published by Princeton University Press.